(TSX / STATS) -- Oklahoma State is a somewhat fashionable pick to not only capture the Big 12 championship but advance to the College Football Playoff.

The second ambition could require the Cowboys to beat Bedlam rival Oklahoma twice, a tall order considering the Sooners are the consensus choice to repeat as Big 12 champions. The league restored its championship game, beginning this season, and will pit the top two teams to advance from the round-robin format the Big 12 has used since contracting to 10 teams in 2011.

Even Lincoln Riley, the 33-year-old prodigy tabbed to take his place, didn't know until a few days before Stoops' announcement that the longtime Oklahoma coach was even considering stepping aside without coaching another game.

(TSX / STATS) -- AUSTIN, Texas -- There's a certain hunger surrounding Texas as it begins its first season with Tom Herman as head coach, a desire fashioned by a series of losing campaigns and unmet expectations over the past three seasons.

Herman inherits a team that went 16-21 in three years under Charlie Strong, who took over for Mack Brown before the 2014 season. Texas went to just one bowl game under Strong and missed the postseason the past two years.

(TSX / STATS) -- West Virginia enjoyed a magical season in 2016, winning its first six games on the way to a 10-3 record, mixing a powerful, senior-laden team with a lot of luck and hard work.

It's going to take a lot more of those intangibles to get the Mountaineers near those levels of success this year, but thanks to the steady hand of coach Dana Holgorsen -- who can get a bit frantic at times -- and a solid overall team built with junior college and graduate transfers, it would be foolish to discard West Virginia as a second-division Big 12 Conference squad.

(TSX / STATS) -- Life after Patrick Mahomes II begins in September for Texas Tech, and that's a scary prospect.

Mahomes led the Football Bowl Subdivision with 5,052 passing yards, and he tossed 41 touchdown passes in 12 games during his junior season. He declared for the NFL Draft in January and shot up the draft boards until Kansas City selected him with 10th overall pick.

(TSX / STATS) -- COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Urban Meyer has set the bar so high at Ohio State that anything short of a Big Ten championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff is considered a disappointment.

If the pollsters and pundits are right, Ohio State fans and players won't be disappointed this season after the team finished 11-2 a year ago, losing in a CFP semifinal and to Penn State during the regular season.